On the move — new home for support organisation

A COMMUNITY support organisation which was forced to leave its base has now found a new home.

Concerns for the future of The Star Foundation, which distributes furniture and other goods to charity organisations locally, were raised after it was told it had to leave the warehouse it used on the Pirelli site, off Beech Avenue, when the land was earmarked for development.

The organisation had been allowed to use the site free of charge since 2010, but earlier this year was informed that its time was up.

Now the foundation has moved into excatalogue and greetings card firm Webb Ivory site after the firm went to the wall.

The foundation has initially secured the Queen Street building on a short-term basis, but director Pete Tryner admitted he was anxious to secure a long-term deal.

He said: “We’re obviously very happy that we have found a nice place and we’re happy that people will know where we are now and are looking forward to them coming down to see us.

“But we’ll be happier if we can keep it — it’s a bit unclear at the moment.” The foundation is still in the process of moving stock to the new building.

Although the organisation knew from the outset that the Pirelli site wasn’t going to be a permanent home, being forced to up sticks came as a surprise.

Mr Tryner added: “We knew we had it for at least two years, but as the developers didn’t have planning permission, we were hoping we would be able to stay a little bit longer.”